Koori Men's Health Day

Health conditions such as depression, anxiety and diabetes are common among Aboriginal people. However, very few seek help from health professionals.

Aboriginal men in particular face several barriers to seeking help when they have a mental or psychological problem. These include difficulty in recognising that their symptoms are related to a mental or psychological illness rather than a physical illness, talking about their difficulties, barriers to accessing services and gender and language barriers in interactions with mental health professionals.

The Koorie Men’s Health Day is a community based, collaborative, culturally accepted, feasible and transferable service model for the early identification of mental and physical illness among Koorie men.

This special edition looks at gaps in service provision, the need for meaningful engagement between mainstream agencies and Aboriginal organisations, and the need for support to enable Aboriginal people to develop their own suicide prevention programs for their communities.